The sale is not expected to affect the Virginia Port Authority’s current 20-year lease of the facility, the terminal’s staff, or customers of the facility.

APM Terminals, a unit of the A.P. Moller-Maersk, built the $540 million deep-water marine terminal in 2007. At the time it was the most technologically advanced marine terminal in North America.

After expected container traffic failed to materialize in the weak economy, APM Terminals agreed in 2010 to lease its facility to the Port of Virginia.

Christian Moller Laursen, CFO of APM Terminals, said the terminal no longer fits with the port operator’s global strategy. “We have chosen to sell our Portsmouth terminal because we are a non-operating lessor of the facility to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the next 16 years,” Laursen said in a statement.

Once the sale is completed, the terminal will be renamed Virginia International Gateway.